WESTLAKE — Cameron Kuhn wasn’t ready for Vermilion’s season to end just yet.
In the first half, the Sailors senior threw his team on his back and kept them in their district semifinal against Buckeye on March 5. In the second half, his teammates responded, and the Sailors clipped the Bucks, 74-72, to advance to the district final.
Vermilion will play the winner of the March 6 district semifinal between Clearview and Holy Name, at Westlake High School on March 8.
“Cameron carried us in the first half,” Vermilion coach Kurt Habermehl said. “Without him, we’re probably down 15 points in the first half, and he did a great job of keeping us in it. In the second half, Forrest Boyd and Kyle Nader were fantastic in adding to Cameron and helping him out a little bit.”
Both teams came out on fire, and stayed that way throughout, as Vermilion shot 61 percent from the field, only to be outdone, slightly, by Buckeye’s 63 percent.
“Offensively, I thought we were outstanding,” Buckeye coach Matt Saunders said. “Unfortunately, it was probably the worst defensive game we’ve played all year. Attribute a lot of that to (Kuhn) for being as good as he was.”
After the Sailors took a 3-2 lead, Buckeye took a lead it wouldn’t relinquish for the rest of the first half. Every time the Bucks pushed the lead out to five or six, though, Kuhn responded and pulled Vermilion right back into it.
“Buckeye is a really good team, but we’re the type of team that doesn’t give up, and we just keep going,” Kuhn said. “It was a great team win. I think this was our best team win of the year. That’s when we needed it too, during tournament time.”
In the second half, the Sailors retook the lead. From that point on, it was back-and-forth, as the teams traded leads time and time again.
The last lead change took place with about 30 seconds left in the game, with Buckeye clinging to a 72-71 lead. That’s when Kuhn hit the biggest 3 of his 36 points, by draining a jumper at the top of the key and gave Vermilion a 74-72 point lead.
“To be honest, the basket was looking pretty big tonight,” Kuhn said. “It just felt good, I let it go and it went in. I was just thankful it did.”
In the second half, Nader and Boyd found their offensive strokes, as well, which gave the Sailors a potent three-pronged attack, which frustrated the Buckeye defense. Nader finished with 17 points and Boyd added 13.
Buckeye’s Garrett Beck led the Bucks with 27 points, with Chris Vogt scoring 14, John Tighe scoring 13 and Jeff Miller scoring 12.
Saunders threw a wrinkle at the Sailors, though, as the Bucks had possession with 3.2 seconds left in the game. Rather than go to Beck, which everyone in the building, including Habermehl, expected, the play went to Miller, who just missed a game-winning 3 at the buzzer.
“We thought Beck would go for the shot, because he’s a great player and hurt us all night,” Habermehl said. “We didn’t defend it very well, to be honest. We were lucky that he missed it, and we got the rebound when we needed to.”

About the Author

Scott writes about a little bit of everything involving high school sports. He loves baseball and wrestling (not the stuff you usually see on television). Reach the author at smahoney@MorningJournal.com
or follow Scott on Twitter: @sm_mahoney.